Pity the composer born in 1913; their centenary celebrations can’t help but be overshadowed by Benjamin Britten’s, to say nothing of the bicentenaries of Wagner and Verdi. Lucky Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) to have a champion such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, who as the Philharmonia Orchestra’s principal conductor has the clout to ensure that this particular 100th birthday doesn’t go unnoticed. Salonen has curated Woven Words, four concerts embracing some of the composer’s most significant works. Last night we got one of the boldest, the Cello Concerto written at the end of the Sixties for Mstislav Rostropovich. Few cellists can match his outsize personality but Truls Mørk comes close.

As the concerto opens, the soloist seems determined that this is a work for unaccompanied cello. Rude and raucous trumpets put paid to that; soon the whole orchestra joins in. At certain points, various instruments — clarinets, harps — pick up one of the cello’s melodic fragments and throw it back: the soloist seems to be in constant battle, with the brass section rasping out what sounds suspiciously like ridicule. As the music approaches its denouement it gets angrier, and there are moments of horror-movie violence. Throughout, Mørk ploughed his lonely furrow with majestic control of pulse, timbre and mood.

Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra, from 15 years earlier, is less strikingly original but the sweeping themes and pounding rhythms, owing more than a little to folk music, have a raw energy that Salonen and his players relished. The concert opened with Debussy’s La Mer, given the wide-screen treatment. Colours were bold and lush, yet there was also focused detail, backed up by finesse from the flutes and harps and ballast in the low strings: a work that can seem hackneyed, buffed-up like new.